Day 3 started much like its predecessor but with an important twist; the prospect that we were finally going to get started on our mission! After yesterday’s grim reality of what this country faces, we set out with determined minds and open hearts. Two hours on a bus traveling roads impassible by US standards took us to two separate sites where we would finally get a dose of that hard work we’ve all been asking for.

One team set about digging the 2 foot-deep trenches that will support the walls of a home for a widow and her two children. After some Haitian Surveying that consisted of some string, sticks, the juice of crushed leaves for marking and a rusty T-square, we began to dig. Trenches 18 inches wide by 2 feet deep might not sound that challenging to dig but I think we all left today with a new definition of “hard work.”

The other half of our team spent the day sorting through debris to prepare for more construction. Team members shoveled rubble into screens in order to separate the large stones that will be used for concrete from the finer dirt and dust that is saved for mortar. The Haitian ingenuity and resourcefulness is incredible and I think our perspectives on the ‘right way’ to do things is being broadened.

Covered in grime, sweat and the satisfaction of a hard day’s work, we returned to our comfortable accommodations for some well deserved showers and rest. With our bodies pushed to the brink of exhaustion, it’s doubtful that the peeping frogs and the crowing roosters will interfere with tonight’s rest.

God continues to protect, provide and bless us in amazing ways! He is reminding me again and again that despite obvious culture and language barriers, He has created us all to love; first through our relationship with Him, and then with others so that we may glorify Him together. Whether it’s through a game of tag with small children, exhausting labor in 100 degree heat, or just a simple waive and smile, we were created to love God and love one another.